receive. good morning. i'm joe krebs. >> and i'm eun yang. welcome to "news 4 today" for this monday, december 25th, 2011. we're taking a live look outside at 5:00 a.m. it is 47 degrees out there. right now a heads up for students and parents at charles county, maryland. thomas higdon elementary school and piccowaxen middle school are both closed due to power outages. they're attempting to restore the electricity in charles county, maryland. >> for the rest of folks, pretty nice start to the day, tom. watch out for fog in charles county as well as in calvert and st. mary's and northern neck this morning. watch out for students waiting for buses as well because there's very dense fog there now. temperatures are chilly as we start off this morning under a partly cloud country sky. near 40 in washington. upper 30s in prince george's, montgomery, arlington counties. parts of western fairfax and northern virginia have dipped down into the low 30s as well as the shenandoah valley and mountains of western maryland and west virginia.

all locations are above freezing. there is some dense fog, and temperatures are in the 40s there. this area in gray under a fog advisory this morning. does include calvert, st. mary's, as well as the northern neck and all of the eastern shore for very dense fog. some of the visibility down to a 16th of a mile. watch out for deer. watch out for students waiting for buses. we have high clouds drifting in from the south and west. there's some area to the left of your screen, that area in green and yellow. that's rain across ohio, indiana, and kentucky. that's along a front arriving here tomorrow. sunrise today 7:11. a little sun this morning through noontime. that fog should dissipate by midmorning. we'll be in the mid-50s by noon time and maybe upper 50s to near 60 middle of the afternoon. it's going to be a cloudy afternoon. sunset at 4:46. a look at your evening planner in ten minutes. here's a look at the monday commute. good morning, danella. >> good morning. if you're making your commute around the beltway, let's check in travel times for you right now. if you're traveling on the inner

loop at braddock road, you're at 65 miles per hour. not so bad. if you're crossing over this time, the outer loop at branch avenue, 62 miles per hour. if you're taking the beltway right around route 1, i'll show you what that looks like right now. the inner loop, not seeing any problems as you make your way towards greenbelt road, and the outer loop as you make your way towards new hampshire avenue. i'm not seeing any issues at this time. volume is very light. no accidents to report. it's a good commute if you're getting ready to head out of the house and hit the beltway. more in a few minutes. joe and eun, back to you. now a tense standoff between occupy d.c. and police ends with dozens of people in jail. heavy machinery brought in to remove protesters from a building police say should have never been there in the first place. tracee wilkins is live in mcpherson square now with the latest. tracee, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, eun. this tense standoff between the protesters and police lasted for several hours. 11 31 people were detained by the end of the night.

take a look. it's quiet at the encampment. it had been quiet for months since occupy d.c. began in washington. here's what it looked like just last night. this was the scene sunday night as park police pulled protesters off one by one from the top of a wooden structure they resurrected in the middle of mcpherson square. park police tied a rope around each of the protesters and forced them into a cherry picker. the confrontation between occupy d.c. protesters and park police came after they condemned the structure deeming it unsafe. protesters built the wooden structure to keep warm and assure it was temporary and would be easy to remove. park police argued they had no permit to build the shelter. by the end of sunday night. 16 people were charged with disobeying an official order, and half a dozen were taken off the top of a structure using a cherry picker, including one protesters who was charged with urinating off of a structure.

indecent exposure and resisting arrest. hear now from one of the protesters. >> the police decided to usurp my rights as an american citizen to be able to assemble, and i got taken away for it. >> reporter: there's now a higher police presence around this camp. i'm tracee wilkins live this morning in northwest. back to you all in the studio. >> tracee, thank you. today d.c. council members will meet to discuss a new ethics bill. this meeting comes just days after the fbi raided the home of ward 5 council member harry thomas jr. it's unclear whether he will attend today's meeting. sources tell news 4, if thomas does show up, the committee might not even vote on the bill, and he's being urged by other council members not to attend the meeting. federal agents raided his northwest d.c. home on friday and seized luxury vehicles, financial records, and other items. he's currently under federal investigation for stealing more than $300,000 from a youth charity to pay for personal vacations and cars.

this morning the search continues for a wssc worker who disappeared in the tridelphia reservoir. chuck duckett was last seen in silver spring, maryland. he was working for the wssc's managed hut department. he was on his way to recover a deer using a boat. his boat was found 300 yards from where he launched it. so far they have seen no signs of duckett. police, dive teams, and sonar specialists will continue the search for duckett at 7:30 this morning. now to decision 2012. former presidential hopeful herman cain could endorse another candidate as soon as today, but his campaign manager says that cain will likely make an endorsement in the coming days, dispelling internet rumors he would endorse newt gingrich today. cain suspended his campaign on saturday amid of tst allegation carried on a 13-year affair and

several reports of sexual harassment. with less than a month to go until the iowa caucuses, the race for the presidential nomination appears to be as much in the air as ever. the latest nbc news poll found newt gingrich in the lead at 26%, followed by mitt romney at 18%, and ron paul at 17%. gingrich has surged 21 points since october. the survey was done before herman cain's abrupt departure from the race. today newt gingrich will meet with donald trump in new york city. the former speaker of the house will try to woo trump to get his endorsement for the republican presidential nomination. gingrich says he'll participate in a debate moderated by trump later this month. another frustrating day for the washington redskins. the redskins lost 34-19 and are now 4-8 on the season.

next week it is the new england patriots at fedex field. the skins will play that game and the rest of the 2011 season apparently without two of their top offensive players. offensive tackle trent williams and tight end fred davis have both reportedly been suspended by the league for testing positive for recreational drugs again. the positive test came shortly after the lockout ended. williams and davis are both said to be repeat offenders. williams reportedly has already accepted the suspension while davis is still deciding what to do next. 5:08. 48 degrees. big cuts for the post office set to be revealed in the coming hours. how the

good morning. i'm meteorologist tom kierein in stormcenter 4. it's a chilly start under a partly cloudy sky. down in the mid and upper 30s most locations, including montgomery, arlington, fairfax, and prince george's counties. district of columbia near 40. these counties in gray under a dense fog advisory until 9:00. includes northern neck, st. mary's, calvert, and the entire eastern shore. watch out for dense fog there. the view from space over the last 12 hours showing quite a bit of cloudiness traveling southwest to northeast over the region. farther to the west that area of green is rain in ohio, indiana, kentucky advancing slowly to the east. we should stay dry today. sunrise at 7:11. a little sun in and out this morning. by noontime mid-50s. during the afternoon cloudy. highs reaching around 60 degrees. this evening back down into the 50s under a cloudy sky. sunset at 4:46. a look at the rest of the week and the weekend in ten minutes. danella, how's traffic? >> good morning. still pretty good as you get ready to head out of the house.

let's take the drive together along i-95. seeing green in both directions. coming out of dale city, not seeing any issues. if you want to drive with me, we'll do it together. heading towards woodbridge in both directions on i-95, you are in the clear. seeing green at lorton. as you make your way towards 395, not really seeing any accidents and no delays on i-95. you're clear in both directions. continuing onto 395 making your way at edsall, you can see nice and clear in both directions heading north and south. travel speeds as you make your way towards the 14th street bridge, not seeing any issues for you there. in fact, from the beltway to the 14th street bridge, you're traveling 60 miles per hour as you make your way into the city. nothing to report at this time. joe and eun, back to you. >> danella, thanks. 5:12 now. 48 degrees. ahead on "news 4 today," making good on their promise. the donation these new millionaires are making

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good morning. welcome back. mail delivery as we know it. today the u.s. postal service is expected to announce unprecedented cuts. news 4's angie goff joins us now from the newsroom with more on the expected cutbacks. angie, good morning. >> good morning, joe. here's the bottom line. snail mail is going to get slower. postal service is facing bankruptcy and needs to make $3 billion in cuts. for the first time in 40 years, get ready to stay good-bye to next day delivery for stamped letters. the changes to happen next spring may alter the first class mail system. mail could take up to nine days to reach you instead of shipments within three days. banks waiting longer for time sensitive delivery, think slower payments for dvd rentals like netflix, mail order prescription drug costs. those could go up. that birthday card for mom or

dad could arrive a day or two late. this will impact many people. it's estimated that 42% of first class mail is delivered the next day. also on the chopping block, roughly half of the near 500 mail processing centers across the nation would close as early as next march. we already know starting january 22nd, stamp price,going to rise one cent, up to 45 cents. analysts say this is a band-aid providing short term relief and could actually work against the postal service, pushing more businesses to the internet. the numbers show change is needed now. the postal service has racked up more than $5 billion in debt just this year alone and needs to pay $5.5 billion to its health retirement fund by december 15th. that's just in a few weeks. they're up against the clock. the woman dubbed the blond bandit will be in a courtroom. stephanie schwab has a long list of charges against her, including two bank robberies, an

attempted bank robbery, carjacking and assault. police arrested the 26-year-old last week after a chase on the beltway that ended with a crash in bethesda. schwab will find out if she will get bond in court today. prosecutors say she could spend 20 years in prison if found guilty of the bank robbery charges alone. today montgomery county lawmakers will hold a public hearing on repealing a ban on alcohol sales at restaurants in the town of damascus. the hearing is happening tonight at 7:00 at the county office building in rockville. the gazette newspaper reports that maryland state lawmakers representing damascus are getting ready to introduce a bill in the state legislature in january that would allow voters in that town to decide whether restaurants can sell beer and light wine. damascus is the last dry town in the county. if the state legislature does approve the bill, the repeal would be on the ballot next november in the town of damascus. and today people looking for temporary work will get some help in centerville. the labor resource center is set to open in a little less than an hour at the centerville square

shopping center. it will offer those looking for temporary jobs an organized system to find work as well as educational programs and shelter from increment weather. available jobs will be distributed via a lottery system. and employers will have to fill out a temporary contract. the resource center will open at 6:00 a.m. until noon monday through saturday. >> today attorneys will make march closing arguments involving election fraud. on friday he testified he approved a transcript of automated calls placed to more than 100,000 democratic voters. the anonymous call said the election was already wrapped up so they didn't need to go out and vote. but the polls were still open. prosecutors say it was an attempt to persuade african-american voters in prince george's county and baltimore city to stay home and not vote for martin o'malley. jack and leslie johnson will learn their fate for what prosecutors call one of the most

notorious corruption schemes in maryland state history. jack johnson, the former prince george's county executive is accused of taking bribes from developers in exchange for favorable treatment. he pled guilty and faces up to 14 years in prison. his wife leslie is a former county council member. she pled guilty to destroying evidence and could receive up to 18 months in prison. this morning the reverend billy graham is recovering from pneumonia. the eadvantavangelist remains i hospital. graham was taken to the hospital last wednesday. this is the second time in six months that he's had to be hospitalized. he, of course, has served as spiritual adviser to several presidents and taken his message of faith to people around the world. >> all right. we certainly wish him well, a speedy recovery. it is almost 5:21. meteorologist tom kierein is going to give us more on our monday forecast. good morning to you, tom. >> good morning.

we have had a little fog reported this morning, but right now around the metro area, we don't have any fog locally. that's a live picture from the city camera. it's 42 now at reagan national. we've got high humidity in place and a very light breeze. that's a recipe for some fog. it's chilly. we're down in the mid-30s throughout much of the region from the mountains across the shenandoah valley and the blue ridge all the way to the bay, except right near the waters where the denser fog is, it's in the mid-40s as well as the northern neck and on the eastern shore. these counties in gray under a dense fog advisory. this is until 9:00 this morning. that includes northern neck, st. mary's county, calvert, on the eastern shore. elsewhere, patchy lighter fog. we do have rain in the midwest out in ohio, indiana, kentucky. that is advancing northeast and slowly creeping east. may be in here by later today. sunrise this morning at 7:11. maybe a little sun this morning. we will have that fog dissipating by 9:00 or 10:00. the rest of the afternoon should

be cloudy with highs reaching near 60. by dawn tomorrow, it will be down near 50 degrees. quite cloudy with some maybe patchy fog and drizzle starting off tuesday morning. the rest of the day tuesday looking wet. occasional showers with highs in the upper 50s to near 60. could get more rain, maybe drizzle and fog tuesday night into wednesday morning. chilly on wednesday, more rain off and on. highs only near 50. could get lingering morning showers on thursday. then sun coming back. colder weather moving in after that. we'll have morning freezes and chilly afternoons with sunshine on friday, saturday, and sunday. highs only in the 40s. now let's check the commute on this monday morning. good morning, danella. >> good morning. if you're taking the rails, not seeing any issues on the metro or vre. on the marc, the camden north train number 844 has been cancelled. be aware of that as you make your commute. a live look at the beltway at new hampshire avenue, not seeing any problems as you travel on the outer loop. inner loop, your volume is very

light. travel speeds on the outer loop, 59 miles per hour as you make your way from i-95 to i-270. that trip will take you about ten minutes. not too bad. traveling on new york avenue and bladensburg, no accidents to report. in this area looking very good. i'm back in ten minutes with a look at the beltway in virginia. joe and eun, back to you. italy's new government has approved austerity and growth measures to help save the euro from collapse. the measures include budget cuts and measures to fight tax evasion. as part of the plan, premier mario monti said he will forego his salaries as premier and finance minister. parliament still has to approve the plan. the news sent stocks up around the world, including the asian and european stock markets. they're hopeful that the european plan and the summit of american leaders will help end the debt crisis. this good news is apparently having a ripple effect here. right now u.s. futures are up. investigators are trying to figure out how an escalator at fedex field suddenly stopped and

hurt five people. it malfunctioned during the mass exit at the redskins-jets game ended yesterday. prince george's fire and ems says an escalator at gate "a" suddenly stopped when a large crowd tried to leave the stadium. two people had to go to the hospital. we're told they were not seriously hurt. and despite a rough game in the acc championship game, virginia tech is happy with their sweet bowl game. the 11-2 hokies claimed a bowl championship series bid. they'll play the michigan wolverines in the sugar bowl in new orleans. this is the third trip for the hokies to the sugar bowl. last time they were in new orleans they lost to florida state in 2000. that determined the national championship. the sugar bowl is set for january 3rd. it's a rematch for the bcs national championship. number one lsu will square off against number two alabama in january. the two met last month with lsu defeating the crimson tide 9-6. the tigers are undefeat ed on te season. alabama just squeaked into the

game, edging out oklahoma state by less than .001 of a percentage point, the closest vote ever in bcs history. it's official. the material girl will tackle football's biggest night. amadonna will perform at next year's super bowl halftime show in indianapolis. she says she is collaborating with the creative team from cirque du soleil. you can watch it on nbc 4 on february 5th. think the fans will watch that? three businessmen claimed their $254 million prize last week in connecticut. it was the state's largest ever jackpot. the three men got some flack when some speculated their trust was a cover-up for a real winner who wanted to remain anonymous. within a week of picking up their cash, the money managers split $1 million among five

veteran service groups. according to insidenova.com, those organizations included the bob woodruff foundation based in bristow and operation first response out of culpeper. they hope their charitable donations inspire future lottery winners to do the same. nice gesture. >> exactly. >> whoever the real winner is. assuming that's it. our time is 5:26. coming up, catching a break. despite your mistake, how you'll be able to save some

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a makeshift shelter at the center of a dispute between occupy d.c. protesters and police ends with a number of arrests. plus republican presidential hopefuls are lining up hope to go land herman cain's endorsement now that the businessman has dropped out. good morning to you. i'm eun yang. >> good morning.

i'm joe krebs. welcome back to "news 4 today." it's monday, the 5th day of december. taking a live look outside this morning, 46 degrees. kind of cool after a lovely, lovely weekend. we do have some issues causing a couple of school closings. that's right. two schools in charles county, maryland, will not open today. thomas l. higdon elementary and piccowaxen middle school will remain closed due to power outages. crews are trying to restore electricity. >> apparently, those are not weather related as far as we know. >> no, but there is patchy dense fog in charles county and parts of southern maryland as well the northern neck and eastern shore this morning. some very dense fog there. watch out for deer. i had one lunge at me out of the ground fog earlier this morning on the way in. right now no fog right in washington. it's partly cloudy. reagan national, 42 degrees. and we've got high humidity

west/southwesterly breeze. so it is rather damp, and there is a chill in the air all around the region. we're in the 30s in most locations. it's above freezing from the mountains all the way to the atlantic beaches. right near the bay, northern neck and tidal potomac, low and mid-40s there. away from the waters, mid and upper 30s, including montgomery, arlington, fairfax, prince george's county, and the district of columbia. the fog is densest in these counties in gray that includes calvert, st. mary's, northern neck, and all of the eastern shore. all of those areas have fog so dense that visibilities are down to just a quarter mile or less in many locations. there's also patchy dense fog in parts of prince george's county. the view from space showing some high clouds drifting over us and rain farther west way out in the ohio valley down into kentucky. that won't be arriving here until later tomorrow. for today we'll stay dry. a lot of clouds around. a look at the evening commute.

>> good morning. if you're taking the wilson bridge, not seeing any issues at all. here's a look right now. it's bustling, but no major delays, no accidents to report at this time. traveling speeds for you. passing the interchange and making your way to the dulles toll road, if you make your way towards the american legion bridge, again in this area as well. outer loop getting pretty busy. inner loop getting busy as well. you're all clear. no accidents or no major congestion just yet. joe and eun, back to you. >> thank you, danella. now to a developing story. dozens of people are behind bars after a tense standoff between occupy d.c. and d.c. police. it all started over a 15-foot wood shelter that the protesters built. tracee wilkins is live in mcpherson square with the very latest. tracee, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, joe. the protesters say they were preparing for winter, but police say they needed a permit to build that shelter. as you can see this morning, all

is quiet here at the camp. this is what it looked like just last night. this was the scene as park police pulled protesters off one by one from the top of a wooden structure they resurrected in the middle of mcpherson square. park police tied a rope around each of the protesters and then forced them into a cherry picker. the competition between occupy d.c. protesters and park police began shortly after d.c. officials condemned the structure they built to keep it safe. protesters built the wooden structure to keep warm and followed park guidelines assuring it was temporary and would be easy to remove. park police argued they had no permit to build the shelter. by the end of the night, 15 people were charged with crossing a police line. 16 people were charged with disobeying an official order. half a dozen were taken off the top of that structure with the cherry picker, including one protesters who was charged with urinating off of a structure, indecent exposure, and resisting arrest. at the end of the night, we're

looking at 31 people who were detained by park police for what unfolded here inside of the park. now, the occupy d.c. protest had been pretty much peaceful since they began here a couple of months ago. of course, as you could see yesterday was anything but. i'm tracee wilkins live this morning in northwest. back to you all in the studio. >> tracee, thanks very much. today virginia attorney general ken cuccinelli is headed back to school. cuccinelli will visit westfield high school in chantilly and talk to students. he'll also discuss his job and the role it plays in the criminal justice system. afterwards, students will have a chance to ask him questions. this comes after a report that he plans to run for governor in 2013. cuccinelli says he won't make an official announcement until sometime next year. starting today, the d.c. public library is giving you a chance to clear your name if you have overdue or lost books. they can bring the overdue items

to a branch without paying a fine. even if you have lost a book, official are encouraging you to come to the library. the free ride is now over on the intercounty connector. the all-electronic toll road in maryland started charging drivers at midnight today. the final section opened two weeks ago, and it now connects to i-370 in gaithersburg to i-95 in laurel. during peak hours, it will cost you 25 cents per mile or $4 to travel the entire length of the icc. it will cost you more if you have an easy pass, and you'll get a bill in the mail. 5:35 now. now to decision 2012. with less than a month to go until the iowa caucuses, the race for the republican presidential nomination appears to be as much up in the air as every. nbc's tracie potts is live on capitol hill with details. tracie, good morning. >> reporter: up in the air, but

take a look at the latest nbc marist poll for iowa. newt gingrich with a strong lead at 26%. mitt romney at 18%. ron paul, who's moved up in it iowa and nationwide at 17%. a virtual tie in third place, but a virtual tie with mitt romney. the big question this morning, after the weekend, and herman cain dropping out of this race, is who will get cain's endorsement. we're hearing it could be newt gingrich as early as today. the cain camp has denied that. all of the candidates, or many of the major candidates, are trying to get an audience with cain, trying to set up a meeting with him to get that endorsement. michele bachmann, who's way down in the bottom tier, thinks they she may pick up a lot of cain supporters because of the tea party vote. even rick an storantorum, who o has 6% in iowa, thinks he can

still win. rick perry put out a statement, saying, i'm now the only washington outsider still in this race. >> tracie potts live on capitol hill for us this morning. tracie, thanks so much. yet another sunday, yet another frustrating loss for the burgundy and gold. the redskins dropped another game with turnovers being the difference. the redskins are trailing the new york jets by four points with plenty of time on the clock in the fourth quarter. rex grossman was sacked, and he fumbled the ball deep in washington territory. the fumble doomed them. the jets scored on the very next possession. that put the game out of reach. washington now falls to the jets 34-19. >> it's frustrating. you come out in the second half. i think we had three series of three and outs on offense. we had a chance to get the momentum in the game, and we didn't. they come back with a pretty good play, with a little sluggo called and got the touchdown. we're still in the football game. just disappointed with the way we finished. couldn't get much going on offense.

it's hard to win the football game when you finish like we did. >> and the loss puts the skins at 4-8, tied for last in the nfc east. next up, another home game against the high flying new england patriots. oh, them. >> yeah, them. oh, my goodness gracious. >> could be not so pretty. >> it's been tough being a redskins fan this season. it's 5:37. 47 degrees. making it easier to find work. how a new facility

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weather and traffic on the ones on this monday morning. good morning, i'm meteorologist tom kierein in stormcenter 4. we're off to a chilly and humid start. many locations in the 30s. columbia heights, new carrollton, oxon hill, and clarksburg, mid and upper 30s. we have patchy dense fog in these counties in gray, northern neck, st. mary's, and calvert counties as well as anne arundel up towards baltimore, as well as on the eastern shore. many locations have visibilities under a quarter mile. watch out for that.

that fog should be dissipating by midmorning. we'll have high clouds drifting over us throughout much of the morning hours. little sunshine in and out. sunrise at 7:11. during the afternoon, cloudy with highs around 60. this evening under a cloudy sky, we'll be in the 50s. low 50s by midnight. sunset today at 4:46. a look at the rest of the week and the weekend at 5:51. danella has a look at traffic. good morning. >> good morning. taking the trip around the beltway not looking soed ebad. traveling up 270, starting to see delays as you make your way from frederick and towards the spur. you can see as you're making the commute right now, you're pretty slow as you travel south and make your way towards urbanna, still slow. once you get to clarksburg, it opens up just a bit. as you pass into rockville, still seeing a lot of green in that area. we'll take a live look at west montgomery avenue. getting a little bit busy. no major delays and no accidents as you make your way towards the spur. northbound, you're nice and clear at this time. on the rails, still have the camden north train number 844 on

the marc. that train is cancelled. no delays reported on the metro or the vre. joe and eun, back to you. >> danella, thanks so much. 5:42. a night of celebrations ended with a number of people in the hospital[ baby coughing ]

[ coughing continues ] [ female announcer ] more pollution from power plants means more childhood asthma attacks. [ labored breathing ] there's technology that makes the air cleaner, but too many plants don't use it. we can't wait. epa must update power plant standards

to protect our kids. [ baby coughing ] at 5:46, good morning. welcome back. starting today, day laborers in and around centerville will get some help in finding work. news 4's megan mcgrath joins us from the new labor resource center in the centerville shopping center. megan, good morning. >> reporter: good morning, joe. previously day laborers had been gathering at a narrow grassy strip near the centerville shopping center. that caused a lot of concerns about traffic flow, public

safety, loitering, and the like. that that's all going to change starting this morning. in just 15 minutes or so from now, the new labor resource center is going to be opening its doors for the very first time. now workers have a new place to go in order to hook up with employers. the labor resource center takes up two storefronts here at the centerville square shopping center. workers can come here and wait inside the center and be matched up with employers. now, unlike the controversial day labor center in herndon, which closed in 2007, no public funding is being used with this center. it is all privately fu lly fund. it opens at 6:00 a.m. and will stay open until noon monday through saturday. and the hope here is that it will streamline the process, help workers -- give workers a place to go to meet up with employers so that their skill sets can be matched, all the while keeping folks from loitering in front of the shopping center. the hope is it will improve

traffic flow. this is an off-beaten part of the shopping center. the hope is it's a win-win for everyone. joe, back to you. >> megan mcgrath reporting live. thanks very much, megan. this morning the search continues for a wssc worker who disappeared in the philadelphia reservoir. chuck duckett was last seen friday afternoon at the lake in sandy spring, maryland. he was working for the wssc's managed hunt department. he was on his way to recover a deer using a boat. his boat was found 300 yards from where he lost it. authorities have been searching the woods around the reservoir. so far no signs of duckett. duckett's family is not giving up hope he will be found. >> we are not giving up. please help us find him and keep him in your prayers until we do. >> police, dive teams, and sonar specialists will continue the search for duckett at 7:30 this morning. today attorneys will make

their closing arguments in the trial involving allegations of election fraud during last year's maryland governor's race. paul shurlich is accuseded of voter repression. he sent out robotic calls saying the elections were already decided so no need to vote. it was an attempt to persuade african-american voters to stay home and not vote for martin o'malley. today montgomery county council will hold a meeting on the alcohol ban in damascus. lawmakers representing damascus are getting ready to introduce a bill in january that would allow voters in the town to decide whether restaurants can sell beer and light wine. damascus is the last dry town in the county.

if the state legislature does approve the bill, the repeal would be put on the ballot for next november in damascus. an 84-year-old grandmother says she's planning to sue the tsa because she claims agents strip searched her at jfk airport. lenore zimmerman said she asked to be patted down instead of going through a body scanner. she said it was worried it would affect her defibrillator. she says agents took her to a room and made her strip down. tsa officials are reviewing the incident. they say they do not conduct strip searches, and all travelers are treated with dignity, respect, and courtesy. all u.s. forces have shot down an unmanned u.s. spy plane. a state agency reports that u.s. armed forces brought down a super secret drone in iran. u.s. officials have not confirmed the report. nato says it may be a drone that operators lost contact with last week while it was flying over neighboring western afghanistan. it's the same stealth drone that

was reportedly used to keep watch on osama bin laden. >> it's just about 5:51. time to get another check of the forecast. a pretty nice start out there. mild enough for this time of year. we've got some dense fog. that's going to be an issue for our viewers in southern maryland, northern neck, eastern shore. watch out for dense fog. right now we don't have any fog in the district of columbia and much of the area. it's at 42 at reagan national. that's a live picture from the city camera. there's capitol hill in the distance. looking toward the east, don't see any clouds yet. it is rather humid like it was yesterday morning. i took this photo. this is not texas. this is the wild horse and cattle country in northern montgomery county. we had quite a bit of fog yesterday morning. if you do have an interesting photo, weather or nature-wise, send it to nbcwashington.com. let's take a look at the

temperatures. it's rather chilly. it's above freezing. we're generally in the mid and upper 30s from the blue ridge to the bay and eastern shore. near 40 -- near mid-40s right near the bay and the northern neck where there is some of this dense fog. it includes baltimore, anne arundel, calvert, st. mary's, northern neck, eastern shore. this is in effect until 9:00 this morning. many locations have visibilities under a quarter mile. we have high clouds drifting over the region. they'll be with us off and on through the morning hours. rain in this area in green and yellow. ohio into indiana and kentucky advancing to the east. sunrise at 7:11. we'll have maybe a little sun through the fog. we'll have temperatures climbing to upper 50s near 60 by middle of the afternoon. then a cloudy and mild evening in the 50s. our sunset at 4:46. by dawn tomorrow, might have drizzle and fog, and it will be near 50 degrees. then some passing showers through the rest of the day on tuesday with highs near 60. could get more rain, drizzle l, and fog tuesday night into

wednesday morning. off and on showers wednesday too with highs only around 50. then lingering showers perhaps on thursday morning. then clearing out and getting a bit blustery thursday afternoon and getting a bit colder, down to freezing on friday morning. sunny but cold as we get into the weekend. highs only in the 40s. morning lows 20s on saturday and sunday. let's check the monday commute. good morning, danella. >> good morning. if you're traveling in virginia on i-95 at fairfax county parkway. start to go see crowding in this area as you make your way towards 395. traveling on 395, starting to bustle on duke street as you're heading north. your lanes are open but a little bit of congestion. not too much you can't handle. still at 60 miles an hour as you make your way on the 14th street bridge and heading into the city. not seeing any issues as you make your way across. if you're taking the icc, today's the day you start paying tolls. keep your eyes on it as you travel. not seeing any problems as you make your way from i-95 and head up 270. it is a smooth commute for you.

joe and eun, back to you. >> thank you very much, danella. you have to wonder what the insurance and repair costs will be. take a look at this. eight ferraris, two mercedes, and a lamborghini were involved in a huge pile-up in japan yesterday. luckily no one was seriously hurt in the crash, but most of the cars were totalled. witnesses said the drivers were going far above the speed limit. hmm. all together, the cost of the cars is priced around $3.8 million. the steady trend of falling gas prices are over. prices are ticking up. analysts expected prices to drop through the end of the year. now experts say refineries and retailers can't afford to take losses. news just in from aaa, you'll pay $3.45 from a gallon of regular in the district, which is actually down a penny. in maryland the price ticked up to $3.23. virginia's average is slightly up as well to $3.17.

in it west virginia, the price dropped overnight to $3.37. engineers for chevrolet are investigating the cause of fires in their volt electric cars. they believe the fires were started by coolant that was leaking onto a punctured battery. the investigation comes after the federal government determined that the cars' lithium ion batteries were possibly causing those fires. chevrolet is working to fix the battery problem, even offering drivers loaner cars if they're concerned about their own car catching on fire. at least a dozen people are now recovering from that post-game celebration that got out of control. hundreds of rowdy fans stormed the field saturday at oklahoma state university. the cowboys had just beaten their rival, the oklahoma sooners, for the big 12 championship title. one person tried to jump over a wall. they had to have surgery for

broken bones. students said there was no way to control the fan frenzy. >> all the event staff tried to line up and stop us. it was like the entire student section. there was no way they were going to. >> i've never been packed more into one area and getting pushed and shoved and all over the place. people were so excited. >> oklahoma state's president said, quote, you couldn't put an army out there to keep that many people off the field. >> cyber monday sales were larger than first thought. the whole week of online shopping broke a record. online sales were $6 billion in the week after thanksgiving. on cyber monday, shoppers spent $1.25 billion, making it the biggest online shopping day in history. tuesday and wednesday also broke $1 billion in sales. besides the bargain deals, free shipping appears to have been a big draw. >> this year people are apparently branking out to the internet for a holiday tradition. instead of trekking to the tree lot or a farm, people are

pointing, clicking, and shopping for fresh holiday trees straight to their doorstep. some are offering live trees on their websites. costco, sears, and target are doing such a thing. according to "usa today," online sales of cut trees are just a fraction of the 27 million plus christmas trees expected to be purchased this year. >> imagine the poor delivery guy. >> real lichly. you need to give that guy a big tip. how do you prevent the needles from falling out during the delivery. lots of questions. president barack obama honored five top artists across the country. ♪ sweet carolina good times never felt so good ♪ >> the holiday stars were out in force for last night's honors.

they went to singer neil diamond, jazz saxophonist sonny rollins, cellist yo yo ma and

lose two of their better players for the rest of the season. right now at 5:59, a developing story in downtown d.c. why police moved in on occupy protesters, making arrests and even bringing in heavy machinery. good morning and thanks for joining us for "news 4 today." i'm eun yang. >> good morning to you. i'm joe krebs this monday, the 5th of december, 2011. m students in charles county, maryland, have a three-day weekend. thomas l. higdon elementary school and piccowaxen middle school are both closed today. a car accident hit a utility line that cut out electricity to both schools and also a water pump. smeco is working to restore electricity. both buildings are expected to reopen tomorrow morning. 43 degrees. a beautiful sky in the nation's capital. a mild start, but tom has been talking about fog toda